Therapy Services

At the Bay Area CBT Center, we help you to identify and overcome the obstacles that prevent you from living the kind of life you desire. To assist you in this process, we offer therapy for individuals and couples as well as twelve-week group therapy sessions that focus on particular issues and concerns. For your convenience, we have offices in San Francisco and Oakland.

Because we believe that the client-therapist relationship is crucial for progress to be made, we offer initial free consultation sessions to prospective clients. We want to be certain that you find the therapist who is right for you.

Individual Therapy

Do you struggle with feelings of inadequacy, anger, or depression? Do you feel ill-equipped to deal with conflict, the challenges of personal or professional relationships? Are you seeking ways to cope with trauma or illness? Individual therapy can help you with these and related concerns. Depending on your needs, sessions can be conducted in person or by phone or Skype. When appropriate, we also offer out-of-office sessions. (See “Types of Therapy Sessions” below for more information.) Individual therapy sessions are fifty minutes long.

What We Offer Individuals

As part of individual therapy, we offer a variety of self-awareness and skill-building opportunities. Although the list below is not exhaustive, it will give you an idea of the ways we can help you. Depending on your needs and desires, any one or combination of these can be incorporated into your therapy:

Assertiveness training

Dating coaching

Anger management

Tools for overcoming perfectionism

Sexual identity exploration

Career Assessment

Non-violent communication skills

Motivational techniques

Sex Therapy

Schema Identification

Exposure

Mindfulness

Anxiety/chronic worry

Bipolar Disorder

Body Image Issues

Career/life transitions

Communication problems/relationship difficulties

Depression

Emotional Dysregulation/Impulse control

Grief/Loss

Hair pulling/skin picking

Low Self-Esteem/Self Doubt

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Panic Disorder/Anxiety Attacks

Procrastination/Indecision

Social Anxiety

Specific Phobias

Trauma

Work-related Stress/Job Burnout

Couples Therapy

Do you feel like you and your partner have the same arguments over and over? Do you feel stuck, hopeless, and alone in your relationship? Is it difficult for you to get your needs met? Does it feel like you give more than you get in return? Do you struggle to communicate your needs and feelings to your partner? You are not alone. Despite the fact that we all yearn and long for intimacy and connection, many of us have difficulties with interpersonal relationships.

By the time partners seek out couples counseling, they often feel so overwhelmed that they start believing that their problems are impossible to manage or repair. Couples get stuck in lose/lose communication when they focus on the immediate conflict rather than their underlying needs. Often their conflicts grow out of core beliefs or main themes in relationships, which we call “schemas.” You may be totally unaware of your schemas, but they shape not only your thoughts, actions, and life choices but also your relationships. Once we identify these themes or schemas in your relationship, your problems don’t seem so large. We can help you recognize and break these painful patterns in your relationship and learn new skills to resolve conflict and build intimacy.

These challenges stymie all types of couples—same-sex and heterosexual as well as couples where one partner (or both) is transgendered. We have ample experience working with a wide variety of couples, and are dedicated to helping you rebuild and maintain a healthy relationship.Couples therapy is conducted in person. All sessions are one hour long.

What We Offer Couples

As part of couples therapy, we offer a variety of self-awareness and skill-building opportunities. Although the list below is not exhaustive, it will give you an idea of the many ways we can help you. Depending on your needs and desires, any one or combination of these can be incorporated into your therapy:

Anger management

Assertiveness training

Assistance with divorce or separation

Codependency issues

Dating coaching

Emotional intimacy building

LGBTQ

Negotiation skills training

New baby preparation

Nonviolent communication

Parenting skills

Premarital counseling

Setting limits and making boundaries

Sex Therapy

Sexual identity exploration

Trust development after betrayal

Group Therapy

Groups are offered on an ongoing basis. The following groups begin in November 2014.

Getting Off the relationship Fence with Schema Awareness:

Group for individuals who are experiencing a breakup, contemplating ending a relationship, having relationship concerns, currently or recently in the process of ending a romantic relationship, going through a divorce, or feeling ambivalent about their current relationship.

Dates and times:Wednesdays 6:00 p.m.–7:30 p.m. or Sundays 3:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m.Duration: 12 weeksCost: $65 per sessionDescription: Sometimes when one partner is feeling extremely unhappy and unsatisfied in a relationship, the other partner may not be as motivated to take steps towards improving the relationship or may be unwilling to participate in therapy. The decision regarding what is tolerable or intolerable for you and whether or not to end the relationship is on you. You can still take steps towards improving your relationship on your own and you can also learn to monitor and track whether your needs are getting met in your current relationship, whether the relationship is consistent with your values, and gain clarity regarding whether or not the relationship is working for you.

This group is designed to help you get off the fence and make decisions regarding your relationship. This group can also help you improve your relationship without your partner.

You will learn specific tools and strategies for monitoring whether your needs are being met in your current relationship, whether you are making your needs clear, whether this relationship is consistent with your values and the kind of relationship you want, and what behaviors you are engaging in that are contributing to the problem and that are damaging your relationship. We will help you parse out what you can work on in your relationship and what is out of your control. We will assess the patterns and themes that have occurred throughout your relationships and the ways you’ve maintained these patterns in your current relationships.

This group is both a skills-based group and a process group. This means that each session will introduce a new skill or tool, and include an open group discussion, weekly assignments, and feedback from group members. You will understand patterns in their relationships and recognize the core beliefs that are getting in the way of changing interpersonal behaviors. You will also learn to recognize your core beliefs in relationships, identify the behaviors that hurt your relationships, and break painful relationship patterns. Group members will take an interpersonal schemas questionnaire in order to identify their schemas. The group will consist of identifying your schemas, schema coping behaviors, and values as well as exploring alternative behavioral responses in relationships. Members will be asked to practice new skills and behaviors outside of session and monitor their behaviors.

Building Intimacy and Improving Communication with Schema Awareness: A group for couples.

Dates and times:Mondays Sundays 5:00 p.m.–6:30 p.m.Duration: 12 weeksCost:$65 per sessionParticipants: Limited to four couples.Description: This is a unique group psychotherapy experience for couples who have a desire to learn new coping skills and communication strategies. Group members will take an interpersonal schemas questionnaire to identify their schemas (core beliefs) in relationships. You will learn to identify your triggers, schemas that you have in your relationship, and gain an understanding of your behavioral responses and how they contribute to a negative cycle in your relationship. This group is both a skills-based group and a process group. This means that each session will include learning new skills, practicing new behaviors, and exploring feedback from other couples in the group. You will learn to recognize themes and patterns in your relationship and identify the core beliefs that are getting in the way of changing your behaviors and being the kind of partner you want to be. In order to break painful relationship patterns, you will learn mindfulness skills to observe your negative thoughts and identify the behaviors that hurt your relationships.

All groups are based on the protocol that Dr. Lev developed and provided in the two books she has coauthored. This approach offers a new and innovative treatment for individuals and couples who want to improve their communication and break negative patterns in relationships. The protocol is based on research that has shown significant improvement in the quality of relationships for participants.